The Fight
by Chelle-sama
Summary: Fairy tale endings are only found in fairy tales, as Tomoyo and Eriol demonstrate. But there's still happily ever after, right? Rated for swearing, so mind yourselves, kids!


****

Disclaimer: All characters property of CLAMP/Kodansha Inc. are used without permission and not for profit. The children's book The Cricket in Times Square was written by George Selden and published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers. It, too, is used without permission or profit, but with a hearty recommendation.

****

Dedication: Merry Christmas, Ekai-san! Hope it fits!

****

Notes: This fic presupposes a relationship between Eriol and Tomoyo. 

****

The Fight

Tomoyo was waiting, without pacing or fidgeting, for him to walk through the door. For some time she'd suspected him of being less than faithful, and she meant to have it all out, now. She was, though she didn't look it, quite impatient for him to arrive. Eager, she supposed, for the chance to say all the dreadful things she'd been thinking. And still hopeful, too, that he would tell her that her fears were unfounded, that it was nothing but the stress of their most recent child, and he would try harder if she would too, to make more time for their marriage. 

When the usual time he arrived came and went she began to tap her foot. She glanced once at the clock, the fixed her gaze on the door. _Tick_. Tap. _Tock_. Tap. _Tick_. Tap. _Tock_. Privacy, complete privacy, was rare for them, and she didn't like seeing it squandered. Her mother couldn't keep the children forever, and since Li had lost his fourth job Sakura-chan had started to worry that maybe he was drinking too much. This wasted time was yet another sin to be reckoned and settled with when he finally dragged in.

Wouldn't she feel bad, a voice whispered in her mind, if he were late because of an accident? Maybe he's somewhere, hurt and bleeding and broken, while you stand here and crucify him because of a few doubts and worries? What ever happened, the voice wondered mournfully, to the benefit of doubt? 

Yes, she'd feel badly if that were the case. But her doubts and her worries had been a long time in the making, her suspicions were not half-formed, and she'd let matters go on long enough. No, she squelched the urge to give in and take the easy route, the one that would not make ripples in their little pond. She would not be the dutiful, unquestioning wife. She hadn't been raised to be anybody's fool, least of all to be so to the man who'd sworn to love and cherish her, and her alone, for all eternity. 

So when Eriol waltzed through the door moments later she was prepared to let him have it with both barrels.

"Where have you been?" Deceptively mild voice and she was proud of that.

"What?" She saw his usual confidence flicker, and he glanced around the room as though it would suddenly offer to help him out.

"You're later than usual. I want to know where you were."

"Uh…I had a tutoring session. I always do on Wednesday, you know that." His self-assurance had returned, but he was also wary. "What's this about, Tomoyo-san?" 

If he thought going on the offensive was going to help him any, he had another think coming.

"This? This what, Eriol-san? What is 'this'?" She gestured broadly to the space between and around them. 

"The next incarnation of the Inquisition, maybe?" he muttered, and Tomoyo knew she hadn't been meant to hear that. He forgot, sometimes, that she was a very observant person. Louder, he replied, "I've only just got home, dear, and yes I'm a little later than usual, but not nearly late enough to warrant the hostility I'm getting from you." He paused, but when she opened her mouth, he cut her off. "Where're the kids?"

"With Mother. I wanted to talk with you about these tutoring sessions of yours."

"Darling…" he began placatingly. 

"Don't 'darling' me, Eriol-san!" 

"Tomoyo-san," he began again, moving cautiously around her to set his books down on the desk, "we've talked about my tutoring before. I know we make a comfortable living together," he either didn't notice her seething at his turn of phrase or chose to ignore it, "but I'm a planner and a worrier at heart. We have three kids, and that's a lot in this day and age, and living in Japan is expensive. I just want to be sure that we'll be okay if something happens. Tutoring is just a way to provide a little peace of mind for me. That's all." He smiled warmly, comfortingly, at her and Tomoyo froze him in place with a glare.

"So it has nothing to do with flighty high school girls and their cute little skirts as opposed to your wife and her maternity clothes?"

"I don't like what you're suggesting, Tomoyo-san." His smile fell away into a frown and his voice frosted over. Wonderful. They were making progress if he was as unhappy as she was.

"Well, good! I don't care for it much myself!" She could hear her voice rising and decided against controlling it. She was angry, damn it, and it was high time he knew how she felt.

"If you're accusing me of…"

"Oh, don't you take that tone with me, Eriol-san. I'm the one being wronged, not you."

"You're being wronged? How?" He demanded, pacing around now. "Because your husband is trying to provide for his family? Oh, poor Tomoyo-san. Her husband works too hard. Would you rather I just toss my job aside in favor of a Scotch bottle, like Li-kun? I'm sure Sakura-san is delighted to have him home all the time"

"He did not lose his job because of his drinking!" She hissed, incensed that he would bring up Sakura-chan's troubles. "He's not an alcoholic, and he lost his job because the company was downsizing! It was only bad luck and you know it!"

"Oh, certainly, and the other five jobs he lost were bad luck, too."

"He's only lost four, and no, not all of it was bad luck. But he isn't a problem drinker," not yet, but Sakura-chan was starting to worry that losing this fourth was making things worse and _that_ was _not_ the problem she wanted to discuss with Eriol. That sneaky son of a bitch was trying to sidetrack her. "And I am not interested in the Li's problems right now! I want to know just what the hell you've been doing with that bimbo you've been 'tutoring' the last two months!"

Eriol gaped at her for a minute and Tomoyo knew it was because she rarely swore. "First off, she is my student, not a bimbo," he began in quiet fury, "and secondly, I've already told you. I've been studying English with her."

"Oh, English, is it?" she sneered. "Has the fact that you teach Classical Japanese Literature escaped your notice somehow? What the hell," she watched with glee as it gave him pause again and decided to use the big guns, "are you doing teaching fucking _English_ to that little home-wrecker, Eriol-san? Do you honestly expect me to believe that shit? She's cute and vivacious and has perky breasts and you're just conjugating verbs, right," she drawled, venom spilling out of her every word. She was pleased to see that her escalating curses and vulgarity were throwing off his usual restraint, stealing all his calm and composure. 

"I'm a native speaker, that's what, and I would _appreciate_ it if you would stop casting aspirations on my student!" He was shouting now, too. Excellent- they were definitely clearing the air. "I don't give a damn what she looks like! Her parents arranged to have me teach her on Wednesday nights and that's all there is to it. I don't pick my students!"

"Sure you don't, and it's just coincidence that you've never had an ugly student, or that all of your little tutoring friends have been female!"

"I just told you, _I don't pick my students_, Tomoyo-san." He ground out between gritted teeth. 

"Oh, of course not, Eriol-san, of course not. These girls just tell their parents they want you to tutor them and suddenly you have another job and get the hell out of this house, away from your harridan wife and screaming kids. I've seen the way they flirt with you! And I know you flirt back, Eriol-san. You've been doing it since we were children, flirting with anything that moves."

"I have never flirted with my students! Never! It would be completely inappropriate!"

She felt tears well and turned away angrily. So he claimed he didn't flirt because it would be inappropriate, not because he didn't want to or because he loved her too much, but because it could cost him his teaching career. Well, that was certainly telling. "I'm supposed to believe that?"

"Yes, damn it, you are supposed to believe it. It's the truth."

"Ah, the last bastion of every cheating man. Declare that 'it's the truth' and 'it's all in your head' and the little woman will have to believe him. How very fucking original."

"Well, what am I supposed to say? There isn't anything I can say that will make you believe me, and I can't say what you want to hear because you want to hear that you're right!" He yelled.

"You think I _want_ to hear that you've been sleeping around with all those little bimbos?"

"For the last time, Tomoyo-san, quit calling my students names. They've done nothing to earn it."

"That's right, you have. You're the one who made promises to me and then broke them."

"I haven't done a damn thing but try my hardest to provide for my kids' futures!"

"How very noble of you."

"You're irrational," he stated, suddenly calm again. "I'm not going to have this conversation with you when you're like this." He started off out of the room. His back was rigid when he paused and spoke again. "I am going to call Mother and ask her to bring the children home. I haven't seen them all day and I promised to read a chapter of The Cricket in Times Square before bedtime. God willing, you'll be a little more reasonable with them around."

"So you're just going to ignore this? You're going to ignore the fact that I think you've been cheating on me for god only knows how long with any number of girls? Wonderful, that's just great. I'm certain that'll solve all our problems."

"I haven't been cheating on you, I told you that, as far as I'm concerned, the matter is closed."

"You bastard. You haven't offered one shred of evidence that you're not."

"And you haven't offered one that I have been."

"That's it!" Tomoyo shrieked, finally at her wits end. "You have absolutely no respect for me or my intelligence! You're sleeping on the couch tonight! _If_ you decided to stay here, instead of with your home-wrecking little bimbo!" She stormed off.

  
"Fine with me! I don't know if I want to sleep next to somebody who could think I'd do something that low!" He bellowed after her.

She turned around, ready to tell him she was leaving and going home to her mother, and was interrupted.

"All right! Very well done, Daidouji-san, Hiiragizawa-kun!" Kawamori-sensei clapped twice. "Seats, please. I don't know if I approve of the language, Daidouji-san, but it was all very realistic looking. Your surprise was very convincing, Hiiragizawa-kun."

"It was quite real, Sensei. Daidouji-san did not see fit to tell me what our assignment was going to be," Eriol replied wryly. 

"I felt it would be more appropriate to the situation," Tomoyo explained. 

"Ah, well, yes. That was a good bit of logic. Then perhaps you'd like to know, Hiiragizawa-kun, that the two of you will be demonstrating the resolution of this argument by the end of the period, operating on the information that is has been three hours since your wife left the room? The rest of you did note, did you not, that the conflict has not really been resolved?"

"It would be helpful," Eriol muttered as Kawamori began the lecture on conflict management and resolution, and how the fight just demonstrated varied from the more controlled, smaller fight played out the day before.

Tomoyo smiled and leaned back in her seat to talk softly to her Life Studies 'husband.' "Don't worry, I have most of it planned out, Hiiragizawa-kun."

"You'd better hope I'm in a forgiving mood, the way you laid into me."

"Well, divorce may be an option. I haven't asked since I'd rather work this out. Besides, you have 45 minutes to think about all the things we said and how we could resolve this to our liking." She faced forward again and began taking notes.

When the teacher finally motioned for them to return to the front of the room to finish their exercise, Tomoyo quietly approached Eriol, who'd taken up a seat on the desk, as though he were in his study at home.

"The children are in bed, Eriol-san," she said softly.

"Good." He was short and didn't look at her.

"Eriol-san, I'm sorry."

"It's nice to know you've finally decided to return to reason and believe me."

"No, I haven't. I mean…" she sighed and sat down next to him, reaching out to turn his face to hers. "I mean that I'm sorry I just exploded with no warning. I'm sorry that I purposely set out to push your buttons and make you angry. Mostly, I'm sorry that things aren't right between us. I want them to be, but I _am_ still afraid that you've been unfaithful." She put a finger over his lips when he started to speak. "Whether or not you have been, I want to work things out between us. For our children, and for me. I love you, Eriol-san. I want things to be right between us again. But what I did when you came home wasn't the way to do it. This is - one of us apologizing for the fight because we need to move past it and get down to the real issues. I've been under a lot of stress since we had the baby, and I haven't been feeling very attractive. You've been busy with teaching and tutoring, and I know you're feeling the stress of another child, too, and we simply haven't been very attentive to each other."

Eriol let out a long, slow breath as she moved folded both her hands into her lap and looked down at them. "Okay. Okay, you're right, we haven't been there for each other recently. And I have to apologize, too, for shouting at you. If you've been worried about me, I should have respected your feelings and your fears more than I did, even if I was angry. I have been gone a lot, tutoring three students all on different days, and that leaves you alone with the kids, and even if you do work from home, that's still like having two jobs."

"Have you…Eriol-san, I need to know…" she whispered miserably. "I don't want to believe it's true."

"I have never cheated on you, and have never even wanted to, Tomoyo-san. Yes, your body has changed since we got married, but it's not a bad thing. I can read our history on you, and you're still beautiful in my eyes. My body as changed, too, but you don't find me less attractive, do you?" He smiled when she shook her head, and he took her hand. "Our priorities have changed since having kids, true. But now that we've realized we need to make each other a top priority again, I'm sure we can make it work somehow. I want to spend forever with you. I _intend_ to spend it with you happily, not fighting the way we did."

"You're right," she sighed, slipping over to his side and cuddling against him when he wrapped his arm around her. "So, let's plan how to make this better. What are the things you need to do to help reassure me that you're being faithful, and what do I need to do to keep from feeling that way? What kinds of things did we do before we were married and parents, that we aren't doing now, that made us feel so close. What…"

Eriol laughed and hugged her close. "Let's plan in the morning when we're both rested and in better spirits. I'll call in sick to work and we'll see if Sakura-san and Li-kun will take the kids for a few hours and we'll work this all out."

"Maybe Li-kun could open a day care," Tomoyo mused, standing up hand-in-hand with Eriol. "He's always been so good with the kids."

Eriol laughed harder.

+++++++

Sorry if this seems a little close to your current situation, Ekai (what with the fighting with Reni) but this was never meant to be commentary on that, okay? This method of ending a fight has been tickling at me ever since Cath told me about it, and I really wanted to work with it.

And, for being late with your gift, you get a ---

BONUS ENDING! 

"That was a good strategy, Daidouji-san," Eriol said as they left. He took her hand and squeezed it. "It's very hard to not give in and be reasonable to such a convincing case without looking like a jackass."

"I thought so," she responded smugly. 

"Still, I didn't enjoy that today. Not just the walking in blind, but being out of control the way we were. I'm glad you wouldn't normally handle that kind of situation that way. Would you?"

"Sakura, do you really think I'm becoming an alcoholic? And why does Daidouji know you think that, but I don't?" Syaoran asked in wounded tones, exiting the class behind them.

"No, Syaoran-kun!" Sakura exclaimed. "It's just that…well, I'm just a little concerned about how much you're drinking, is all."

"I know because we talked it over. That's what women do, Li-kun, we go to our friends for advice," Tomoyo answered his second question. "And I certainly don't think you're an alcoholic."

"We don't have to have a fight like Daidouji did, do we?" He asked Sakura. "What was on that Monthly Exercise Slip you drew, anyway? I told you about what was on mine."

"That was the weekly situation you drew, Li-kun," Tomoyo reminded him. "And you'd have to tell Sakura-chan about losing another job, anyway, even if we didn't have to share the weeklies with our partners."

"I still don't think it's natural that I keep drawing cards like that," he sulked, glaring suspiciously at Eriol. 

"Eriol-kun promised he would behave, Syaoran-kun," Sakura soothed. "We'd know if he was using magic to arrange it, anyway. Quit blaming him for the fact that you can't hold down a job."

"I knew you thought less of me for that! I knew it!" Syaoran laughed and grabbed her hand. "You don't respect me."

"Syaoran-kun!"

Tomoyo turned away from her friends when Eriol tugged on her hand. "You _wouldn't_ handle the possibility of me being unfaithful like that, would you, Daidouji-san?"

"No," she smiled sweetly at him. 

"That's a relief. You were all too good at getting under my skin." He tucked their joined hands into his jacket pocket.

"I'd have my bodyguards follow you and find out for certain before I confronted you. Of course, they're very protective of my feelings, so they might just shoot you on sight if you were. They probably wouldn't kill you, not without knowing how I felt about it, but then, it would teach you not to try it again."

Syaoran laughed with her at Eriol's sudden discomfort.


End file.
